Monday, July 8, 2013

My [2nd] cousin Christina is amazing. No, really. Not only is she gorgeous and sweet, but she is so talented! She owns a company with her husband, Greg, called Petals Into Bangles.

Let me back up . . . When we get married, we brides spend crap loads of money on our lovely bouquets of flowers. After the wedding, however, those flowers dry up or get tossed. But what if there was a way to preserve those flowers sans the outdated "put them in a book and flatten them" or "hang them til they dry out" method? Well! The long and short of Greg & Christina's business is this: You, the bride, send your wedding bouquet to Greg & Christina, and they'll turn said bouquet into a unique, one-of-a-kind bangle. This way, your flowers are preserved forever and you can wear your bangle as jewelry. It's a win-win!Here is Greg & Christina's story from their website:

"When we married in 2006, I wanted to preserve the memories of our special occasion by preserving my floral arrangement. The floral shop we used did not have freeze drying equipment, and neither did anyone else in town. We were told the equipment was too expensive and even more costly to maintain.

I was forced to pack my bouquet in a cooler and haul it back to the east coast where we were living at the time. I then spent 2 days trying to find a floral preservation shop. Once I finally did, I had to drive 40 miles out of town. Really?

At the end of it, I was flabbergasted by the whole process. Aren’t other brides trying to preserve their flowers too? I started asking some of my married friends and they agreed.

So, with that in mind, I decided I was going to do something about it. I did what any American does and I started a small business to offer high-quality handcrafted bangle bracelets designed for in-press floral preservation. Our bangles are a fashionable, modern alternative to the traditional wall mounted floral bouquet.

I am giving brides a unique way of preserving wedding flowers while providing a simple approach to ensure your favorite flowers are preserved in a timely manner!"

Of course, I was interested in this after we got married 2 years ago, so I contacted my beautiful cousin to see what she could do for me. The catchy thing was that she'd never worked with synthetic flowers before (yea, I'm cheap and went to Hobby Lobby, what?) but she was up to the challenge!This was my bouquet before I sent it off to her!

She asked me to size my wrist, what embellishments I wanted and whether I wanted dark or light wood. AND . . . this is what she sent me back!

So I opened it!!

I have to say that I'm over-joyed at the final product! It captures the colors of our wedding and is a keepsake for my wonderful day!

I genuinely recommend this to any bride (who may still have her bouquet cuz she is frugal like me) or is getting ready to get married and will want to send her fresh flowers to Greg & Christina.

Visit their website http://www.petalsintobangles.com/ and like them on Facebook (Click here)! And for clarification, I'm not being paid to tell you how awesome my cousin and her husband are or anything like that. I just think it's a great business and want everyone to know about it! Happy wedding planning!